The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has offered this Saturday a hot welcome to the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, upon his arrival at his residence of Downing Street at a precious meeting to the European Summit that will be held this Sunday in London while the devastating descent between the Ukrainian president with his American counterpart, Donald Trump.
A fortnight of European countries, which have mostly left in defense of the leader of Ukraine, have been summoned by Starmer to find how to reinforce the position of Ukraine on the field for some peace negotiations, after Washington has threatened to cut the armament supply to Kiev.
On top of the table, only the military crossroads of Ukraine is no longer found: European countries face the largest gap in the transatlantic alliance since the end of World War II. Starmer intends to play the role of mediator between an increasingly suspicious Europe of the Trump administration and a white house that approaches the positions that Russia defends, while calling into question the Ukrainian President.
The White House, in fact, denied this Saturday to have orchestrated an ambush against Volodimir Zelenski and blamed the Ukrainian president of the historic confrontation that made the meeting with Trump jump with Trump, on Friday at the Oval Office. “This was an ambush is absolutely and categorically false,” said Mike Waltz, Trump National Security Advisor, in an interview with the Fox News chain.
Walz said that the White House had prepared a “beautiful scenario in the East Room” so that Trump and Zelenski sign the agreement for which Ukraine would share his natural resources with the United States, but accused the Ukrainian president of having dynamited the meeting.
According to the senior official, Zelenski chose to “litigate” with Trump even though he had not been warned that he did not and showed that “it is not clear” that Ukraine really wants to end the war. “He had a wrong approach, at a wrong historical moment and definitely with the wrong president to try to do that,” Walz added.
According to the White House account, the meeting was harmonious for 40 minutes and it was Zelenski who decided to break the tone with a confrontational attitude, which first react to the US vice president, JD Vance, and then to Trump to stop his feet.
For the Democratic opposition, the unprecedented discussion in front of the television cameras was “an ambush planned to humiliate” Zelenski and reinforce the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
“He has the support of all the United Kingdom”
Faced with this scenario, Starmer gave Zelenski a very hot welcome this Saturday to his residence of Downing Street, where he received him with a hug and with the statement that the United Kingdom is next to him and next to the entire Ukrainian people.
Zelenski was excited for the reception, when in a broken voice he thanked the Labor leader that their country and government have lent to the Ukrainians since the Russian invasion in 2022. “Let me tell you that you are very, very welcome in Downing Street. As you have been able to hear for the streets of the street, you have all the support in all the United Kingdom. Ukraine, as long as necessary, “Starmer said.
“This is the people of the United Kingdom who goes out to demonstrate how much support you, how much they support Ukraine, and our absolute determination of being with you, an unwavering determination, to achieve what we all want, which is a lasting peace,” he added, he added, according to the newspaper The Guardian.
This “lasting peace” must take into account the sovereignty and security of Ukraine, which “is very important for Ukraine and very important for Europe and very important for the United Kingdom.” “I am looking forward to being able to talk to you here this afternoon. Thank you very much for coming,” Starmer added.
Already within the British government headquarters, Zelenski thanked the reception. “I am happy to be here. I have seen many people and I want to thank the town of the United Kingdom for this broad support from the same start of this war. Thanks to you already your team,” he said.
Zelenski himself confirmed that he will meet with King Carlos III. “I am very happy that his Majesty the king has accepted a meeting for tomorrow and I am grateful for this great meeting for tomorrow,” he said.
Zelenski also highlighted his “happiness” because “Ukraine has these strategic partners.” “We have signed a historical document, the 100 -year agreement,” he said. “Yes. We only have such an agreement with the United Kingdom, so we are happy and we have your support,” he explained.
NATO gets unmarked
Starmer has gathered the main military powers of the continent in order for more countries to join its initiative to offer troops for a hypothetical peace force that would guarantee security if an agreement was reached to stop the conflict. According to Downing Street, the leaders of Ukraine, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania have been invited to the event.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, António Costa, as well as the NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, will also participate in the informal summit. Precisely, this was unmarked in the last hours of almost unanimous voices that in Europe have closed ranks around the leadership of Zelenski.
In an interview with the BBC, Routte called Zelenski on Saturday to “find a way to rebuild his relationship” with Trump and asked him to “respect everything he has done” this by Ukraine. After qualifying as “very unfortunate” the stormy meeting between Zelenski and Trump on Friday at the White House, he specifically referred to the Javelin portable lanzamisiles, which Trump facilitated Kiev in 2019, “without which Ukraine would not have had an opportunity” before the Russian invasion.
Security guarantees
Before Sunday’s summit, Starmer will speak by video call with the leaders of the Baltic countries, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, who are not invited to the appointment, and will later receive in Downing Street the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
In the afternoon, he will host in a place not yet officially revealed in the center of London to the 14 European leaders, including the Spanish Pedro Sánchez, the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron and the Polish Donald Tusk.
According to a government spokesman, Starmer will first try to “strengthen the current position of Ukraine and increase the pressure on Russia”; Second, he will try to move towards a peace that ensures that Ukraine retains his capacity for deterrence, and third, he will address the plans to provide security guarantees.
This last aspect has been revealed as the most thorny of the new relationship with Washington, after Trump has resisted committing himself despite the requests he received this week at the White House both for Starmer and Macron and Zelenski.
The British Prime Minister will also insist that “there can be no peace in Ukraine without Ukraine” and will call his European colleagues to “take a step forward” to reach a fair and lasting peace. It is expected that the British king, Carlos III, will receive Zelenski after the summit in his Sandringham Palace (east of England), which gives even more enhanced to the visit of the Ukrainian leader.
